— By Bradley Heltzel, Times West Virginian
FAIRMONT, W.Va. — It was finally time for Fairmont Senior star lineman Zach Frazier to break out the binder.
With the Polar Bears preparing to host Bluefield in the Class AA state semifinals after splitting back-to-back Class AA title games matchups with the Beavers the prior two seasons, Frazier and his father, Raymond, went work, studying every layer of Bluefield for the teams’ rubber match.
“I couldn’t look at Bluefield before we played them, but my dad was compiling stuff and he handed me a binder that thick on Bluefield,” said Frazier as he stretched the index finger and thumb of one of his giant mits to their full width. “I was studying that all week.”
Talk to Fairmont Senior’s coaches, Frazier’s family, or really anyone who knows him, and for a player laced with so many positive attributes — hustle, toughness, coachability on the field, humility and politeness off of it — it’s that sort of day in, day out preparation that is heralded the most.
“I’ve never seen a kid prepare the way he did,” said Fairmont Senior offensive line coach Troy Bigelow. “That’s instilled in him from his dad. They’re just very thorough — watching film, lifting weights, he never cheats himself.”
“He enjoys the grind, he genuinely does,” said Fairmont Senior head coach Nick Bartic. “He loves working out, he really enjoys breaking down film…he’s just obsessed with football, obsessed with competition.”
Frazier’s accomplished a ton from that level of dedication over the course of an all-time career with the Polar Bears — a program-record 54 career starts, three all-state first team nods, three state title game appearances, a state championship, a scholarship to WVU.
And now, Frazier has been named the 2019 Stydahar Award winner by the West Virginia Sports Writers Association, an honor named after Shinnston High legend Joe Stydahar and given an annually to the best lineman in the state.
Bluefield senior and fellow WVU signee Sean Martin, Spring Valley’s Wyatt Milum, Cabell Midland’s Jackson Oxley and Martinsburg’s Ty Lucas were also considered for the honor.
“He’s a special one,” Bigelow said of Frazier. “He does everything the right way — his GPA, everything — he’s just good. I mean honestly he doesn’t do anything bad, doesn’t do anything wrong. He’s a coach’s dream.”
Such assertions are hyperbole in the case of most, but for Frazier, well, it’s really just the honest truth. Over the past four years, there probably hasn’t been a player across the state more dominant. Snap-to-snap, season-to-season he’s blown up double teams by the hundreds and bulldozed pancake blocks by the dozens. Doling out punishment has become his calling card.
“That’s the fun part. I love football because you can be violent and slam people to the ground but you don’t get in trouble,” Frazier said laughing. “That’s definitely what I like about it.”
Frazier’s size and physicality are overwhelming and his technique in terms of leverage and hand usage is near flawless, according to Bigelow, but his most endearing on-field trait is his relentlessness. It’s one thing for a dude as big as Frazier to move like he does, it’s another thing to move like he does play after play, game after game.
“We always talk about his motor. He doesn’t quit man — he plays hard every snap and doesn’t take plays off,” Bartic said. “That speaks to how he takes offseason conditioning, his weight training regimen. He takes everything serious and he’s going to put himself in the best position possible at all times.”
“When you have that kind of ability and then you mix it with that kind of attitude, that’s what you get,” Bigelow said. “I mean, it’s incredible.”
En route to all-state first team captain honors this season, Frazier was the heart of a Polar Bears offensive line that paved the way for an FSHS offense that averaged 445.4 yards and 46.2 points a game. Defensively, he amassed 66.5 tackles, including 23 tackles for loss, with nine sacks, four pass break ups, two blocked kicks, a forced fumble and a 2-yard fumble recovery for a touchdown.
“My first game, it was against Robert C. Byrd and going into the game I wasn’t sure if I was gonna start. They told me right before the game that I was starting on defense and offense. I remember that,” said Frazier of his Fairmont Senior debut as a freshman in Week 1 of 2016. “And then I’ve never come out since.”
Over those four years, Frazier never emerged as a rah-rah-type talker or vocal leader, but he had an indelible, selfless nature about him that fit perfectly into a Fairmont Senior offensive line that bonded through a sort of fun-loving swagger.
“Lineman isn’t a glorious position — you don’t get all the stats — but coach Bigs, he made it something that was fun to do and other people would kind of get jealous of,” Frazier said. “Our O-line unit over the years, I’ll never forget the guys I played with and the memories we made. It’s a time I’ll always remember and cherish.”
Frazier, who will leave behind quite a legacy at Fairmont Senior on the field and on the mat as a wrestler, will graduate with honors this spring and then head to WVU to continue his football career as a Mountaineer.
“He’s obviously taken athletics very seriously and he’s also taken academics very seriously,” said Zach’s father, Raymond, “but the thing I’m most proud of is the human being he is. He’s just a great kid — he tries to do the right thing and he cares about people.”
Frazier will be honored as the 2019 Stydahar Award winner at the 74th Victory Awards dinner May 3, 2020 at the Embassy Suites in Charleston.